Ball rolling game



y 1933- H. G. BREITENSTEIN ,8

BALL ROLLING GAME Original Filed April 18, 1934 Patented July 12, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIQF.

BALL ROLLING GAME Herbert G. Breitenstein, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Raymond T. Moloney, Chicago, 111.

3 Claims.

My invention relates to improvements in ball rolling or bagatelle games to make the playing thereof more interesting and fascinating, the present application being a divisional application of my copending application Serial Number 721,119 filed April 18, 1934 for Game of skill.

These games comprise an inclined board or table provided with ball trapping holes, the balls being projectable to the upperend of the board 19 to gravitate thereafter down the board and into Y the holes. The present invention more particularly provides a particular type of ball closed :trap door for certain or all of the holes so that when a hole once receives a ball, the door closes and the hole cannot thereafter receive another ball, during the play of a given game cycle. Associated with the board and carried for sliding movement therebelow is a panel constructed in ;a manner when shifted to move a closed trap '20 door to its hole opening or uncovering position.

The main object of the invention is to provide an improved trap door of the kind stated associated with novel, improved means to move a closed trap door to its hole uncovering position.

25 Other objects will become apparent to those skilled in this art as the disclosure is more fully made.

Briefly, such objects are attainable in a practicable form by mounting in a game board hole, 30 a hinged cover or door normally disposed in an upright hole uncovering position so that an angular leg extension of the door is disposed in the hole in a manner to receive a ball entering the hole. As the ball passes downwardly by gravity 5 through the hole, the leg is moved downwardly, with the ball causing the door to be moved hingedly from its normal position to a down position where it covers or closes the hole to prevent other balls thereafter from entering said 40 hole. Below the board is a shiftably carried panel having an opening therein into which the leg extension of the door extends when the door is in hole closing position. When the panel is shifted one end of the panel opening engages the leg to move the door back to its raised hole uncovering position, there being operatively associated with the door, a spring to flip the door over its dead center position to insure full opening or closing of the door.

50 In the accompanying sheet of drawings:

Figure 1 is a general plan view of a ball rolling game;

Figure 2 is a longitudinal sectional View therethrcugh, taken along the line 22 of Figure 1,

looking in the direction of the arrows; and,

Figure 3 is an enlarged, detail, longitudinal sectional view through the trap door structure, taken along the line 33 of Figure 2, looking in the indicated direction.

As shown in Figure 1 the game device is housed 5 in a box having a front wall i6, two side walls, H, and a rear wall, 12, the box being closed at its top by the usual glass cover E3. The walls carry an inclined game board M having an oval play field 95 at one side of which is a ball shoot- 10 ing passage 55. At the lower end, adjacent the front wall it, is a shooter or projector ll for shooting balls, in the usual way, one at a time, onto the upper end of the playing field to gravitate theredown toward the front wall end 5 thereof. The board field 85 may be provided with any number of holes i8 formed therethrough to receive balls rolling over the field. Spent balls missing these holes it are received by a spent ball pocket or opening i9 formed in the lower end of the board.

As shown best in Figure 3, each hole It has a trap door 293 pivotally mounted therein as shown for hinging movement, said doors each having a substantially right angular leg-extension 2| depending downwardly when the door is in hole closing or covering position. These doors are normally in hole opening position as shown in the dotted lines in Figure 3 so that when a ball enters the hole it engages the leg 21 to pull the door to hole covering or closing position in an obvious manner. The lower edge of each hole 18 adjacent the door hinge carries a fiat spring 22, which serves releasably to lock the door 20 in either its open or closed position, said spring also acting to press the door in one direction or the other as it is moved over dead center.

Underneath the board 15, and in close proximity thereto is slidably carried on suitable supports 23, a thin, flat panel 24 which is parallel to the board and in the conventional manner by means of a spring 25 is urged in a direction toward the front wall 59. This panel 24 can be slid by a coin released slide 26 mounted in the wall la, the slide 25 adapted to abut a shoulder 2'! formed on the panel 24. The panel 2 3 is formed with elongated cut out openings 28 re spectively positioned below the ball receiving holes l8 so that trapped balls may pass through the panel in an obvious manner into the cabinet and onto a usual ball routing panel, not shown, for return to the projector ll in a manner well understood in this art. It will be noted the front edge of the panel 2 3 is positioned normally under the hole H! to support balls entering same.

Also, it is to be noted that when a door 20 is in hole closing position the leg 2| depends into the adjacent opening 28 of the panel. (See Figure 3.)

In operation, a ball enters an uncovered hole I8, engages the door leg 2| and closes the hole by pulling down the door 20 about its hinge as the ball drops through the hole I8. The spring 2| serves to snap the door over its dead center position to insure positive closing thereof. The ball also drops through the opening 28 in the panel 24 and the leg 2| now hangs into said opening 28. No further balls can enter a closed hole l8. At the termination of play the coin slide 26 is operated to push the panel 24 rearwardly away from the front wall In, causing the front end of opening 28 to engage and move the leg 2| to raise the latter and hinge the door 20 upwardly until the spring 22 is operative to snap the door to its full raised hole uncovering position.

From this disclosure it will now be seen that an improved ball trapping and control means therefor have been provided.

It is the intention to cover all changes and modifications of the example of the invention herein shown and described, which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A game board having a hole therethrough, a trap door for the hole closed by a ball dropping through the hole, said door having a depending portion, a thin, flat slidable panel carried immediately below and in close proximity to and parallel with the board and formed with an opening into which the depending portion projects when thedoor is in hole closing position, and means to slide the panel to cause the end of the opening therein to engage the depending portion to raise thedoor to hole opening position.

2. In a ball rolling game having a board over which a ball is rollable to and into a hole formed therethrough, a door movably positioned in said hole and normally disposed in hole opening position whereby a ball may enter the hole, said door having an angularly related extension disposed in the hole when the door is in hole opening position to be engaged by a ball entering the hole and passing through the board to move said door to hole closing position, the combination with said extension of a thin fiat panel slidably carried immediately under the board in close proximity to and parallel therewith and formed with an opening through which the ball may pass and into which the extension extends when the door is moved by a ball to hole closing position, and means for sliding the panel to cause an edge of the opening to engage the extension and move the door to its hole opening position.

3. In a ball rolling game having a board over which a ball is rollable to and into a hole formed therethrough, a door hingedly carried in said hole, said door adapted to be moved to hole opening position, said door having an angular extension positioned across the hole when the door is in hole opening position to be engaged by a ball entering and passing through the hole to move the door to hole closing position, a spring located in the hole bearing yieldably against the door in a manner to snap the door over dead center when it is moved in either direction, the combination with said door extension ofa thin, flat panel slidably carried immediately under and in close proximity to and parallel with the board and formed with an opening into which the extension depends when the door is in hole closing position, and means to move the panel whereby an end-of the opening engages the extension and causes the door to move to hole opening position.

HERBERT G. BREITENSTEIN. 

